Recipes for dinners you can make for under a dollar, tips on how to turn one chicken into several meals for a family – these are the kinds of posts trending on TikTok as millions of Americans fear the US government's prolonged shutdown will cut people's food stamps.
"Start heading to the food pantry and your churches now, because the sooner you go, the more food you can get a hold of because as soon as people find out that the benefits are not paying out, they're going to those same pantries," Arvilla Beckworth, who goes by Single Mom Coach on TikTok, said in an online video.
On 10 October, US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which oversees the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), sent a letter to state saying that if the shutdown continues, the government will have "insufficient funds" to pay full benefits come November.
SNAP offers some 40 million low-income Americans money each month to buy groceries. According to the USDA, in 2023, almost three-quarters of SNAP recipients had a gross monthly income at or below the poverty level.
As the largest food assistance programme in the country, it has become a vital part of many people's monthly budget, with average payouts at about $6 (£4.50) a day, per person.
